For 18 seasons, CBS’ Tuesday lineup was anchored by NCIS before the venerable crime drama moved to Mondays in fall 2021 to make room for an FBI night. The NCIS franchise is returning to the Tuesday 8 PM time period this fall with the Paramount+ Australia series NCIS: Sydney, which will premiere in the slot Nov. 14.
NCIS: Sydney, the first international spinoff for a CBS Studios global drama franchise, was originally slated to debut on CBS Nov. 13, three days after the series’ worldwide premiere in Australia, and air in the Monday 10 PM time period.
However, ABC announced this week that it will simulcast 10 additional Monday Night Football games. With the move, NCIS: Sydney, a rare original scripted series on the fall broadcast schedule, severely impacted by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, will not have to face NFL football while also capitalizing on NCIS fans’ longtime viewing habits of tuning in Tuesdays at 8 PM.
In the hour, NCIS: Sydney will succeed Big Brother, which will have wrapped its season by then. It will be followed by an NCIS rerun for a two-hour franchise block, and Paramount+’s FBI: True docuseries, which will slide from 9 PM to 10 PM starting Nov. 14.
Originally, NCIS: Sydney was supposed to follow an NCIS repeat on Mondays and air in NCIS: Hawai’i‘s Monday 10 PM slot. Back-to-back NCIS repeats will now run from 9-10 PM Mondays as CBS is relying on its arguably most resilient repeat performer against MNF while also keeping the block warm for NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i’s eventual return to originals.
I hear the 10 PM slot is envisioned as a drama procedural wheel, with FBI, whose repeats will be airing Tuesdays 9 PM, leading to FBI: True, until NCIS: Sydney‘s arrives, expected to be part of the rotation.
In other CBS fall schedule tweaks, new reality series Buddy Games, currently airing Thursday 9 PM behind Big Brother, will swap slots with Big Brother on Thursday, Sept. 28.
NCIS: Sydney, starring Olivia Swann and Todd Lasance, sees rising international tensions in the Indo-Pacific. The brilliant and eclectic team of U.S. NCIS Agents and the Australian Federal Police are grafted into a multi-national taskforce, to keep naval crimes in check, in the most contested patch of ocean on the planet.
Here is the revised CBS lineup:
Thursday, Sept. 28
8:00-9:00 PM BUDDY GAMES (special airing)
9:00-10:00 PM BIG BROTHER (special airing)
10:00-11:00 PM THE CHALLENGE: USA
Mondays, starting Nov. 13
8:00-9:00 PM LOTERÍA LOCA
9:00-10:00 PM NCIS (encore episodes)
10:00-11:00 PM NCIS (encore episodes)
Tuesdays, starting Nov. 14
8:00-9:00 PM NCIS: SYDNEY (new time period premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM NCIS (encore episodes)
10:00-11:00 PM FBI TRUE (new time period)